SONNY BONO DIES IN SKIING ACCIDENT

Dateline: 01/06/98

Still in shock over the skiing accident death of Michael Kennedy , the nation was stunned again with the news of the skiing death of Sonny Bono, 62.

As the news poured in this morning, it appears Sonny Bono met the same fate as Kennedy: colliding with a tree while skiing and suffering fatal head and neck injuries.

An alert went out Monday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. from Bono's wife, Mary. It took two hours for the ski patrol to locate Bono's body at the Heavenly Ski Resort, located on the Nevada-California state line.

Bono, like Kennedy, was an avid skier and was on vacation with his family when the accident occurred. He was apparently skiing alone late in the day when he crashed into a tree. Also, like Kennedy, Bono was killed on an intermediate run, Orion Run, on the Nevada side of the mountain.

Despite his political career, Bono will always be best known for his singing career as part of the Sonny and Cher rock and roll stars in the 1960's and 'The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour' in the 1970's.

Born Salvatore Bono on Feb. 16, 1935, to a poor Sicilian immigrant family, Bono dropped out of high school and began dabbling in music. Moving into the fringes of the music industry, he met Cherilyn LaPiere Sarkisian in the early 1960's. Bono was convinced his songwriting and her voice would make them big. They married in Tijuana, Mexico, and he put the plan into effect.

Sonny and Cher struck it big with the 1965 hit "I Got You, Babe" and the rest is show biz history. Forty more hits followed in 1965. By the 1970's their singing career seemed to be waning and they moved into "The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour" in 1971, often bringing their daughter Chastity into the spotlight. This long-running hit can still be seen in re-runs today.

Marital bliss and the show ended in 1974. They reunited professionally in 1976 for a two-year run on "The Sonny and Cher Show."

After the split with Cher, Bono became a registered voter for the first time at the age of 53. In 1988 he was elected Mayor of Palm Springs, California and in1994, he won the House seat representing Palm Springs. He was re-elected in 1996 and was called "a politician with a different beat.

Sonny and Cher remained friendly until his death. Upon hearing the news of this tragedy, Cher cancelled a London booking and returned to the United States immediately.

Those of us who grew up in the '60's and 70's mourn because we ain't "Got You Babe" any more

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